If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

The weather could be worse.

With droughts out west, arctic cold in the south and the middle and northern tier states seeing record snowfalls (it is snowing here in CT again) It got me thinking about weather extremes in history and I came across "the year with no summer" (1816).

So apparently in 1816 spring sprung to a warm start but by May all the fruit trees in the North East got hit by frost and the fruit crop was lost, frosts in June did in much of the corn crop and then July rolled around and Northern New England got 2 snow storms which did in the remainder of the corn. In Vermont by July 28th live stock deaths numbered in the 100,000s after many pastures were covered with as much as 12 inches of snow.

Imagine the bee industry today if we had a season like that? I haven't seen any reports of bee losses that year, but I can't imagine any could have survived in the north. Perhaps it was the beginning of southern bees coming north.

Re: The weather could be worse.

Let's hope we don't ever see something remotely close to that. Coming from a farm family these past few years have been really tough. Hurricanes a few years ago destroyed most of our grain corn and last year the price dropped so severely we're really low on cash reserves. A year like that would kill a farm like ours.

Re: The weather could be worse.

Originally Posted by Danpa14

Mt Tambora exploded spewing 25 cubic miles into the air. Compared to Mt St. Helens at about 1 cubic mile.

If the historical trend continues we are due. In 1600 an eruption in South America led to a volcanic climate in 1601, an eruption in 1815 led to same conditions in 1816. here we are 200 years later. better start developing bees that can handle 12 months of winter